Opinion
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Dick Alcombright Runs for Mayor of North Adams
The Candidate Answers Questions
By: - Jul 14th, 2009Recently Dick Alcombright who opposes the incumbent, John Barrett, met with us to discuss his platform as candidate for Mayor of North Adams. We particulaly focused on the presence of Mass MoCA, MCLA, and an emerging community of artists as a matrix for arts as an economic engine to drive a depressed and recovering city.
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Saratoga Performing Arts Center Season Opens
New York City Ballet, Philadelphia Orchestra, Lake George Opera, Bruce Springsteen
By: - Jul 11th, 2009For Berkshire residents the Saratoga Performing Arts Center is not that far away, and offers a completely different menu of performances to choose from. Their season had just begun when we visited. The New York City Ballet is in residence through July 18.
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Our Berkshire Review of the Arts :
July 6 - July 20Your Guide to the Best in Arts and Entertainment
By: - Jul 04th, 2009July is a great time to be in the Berkshires with dozens of must-see events taking place as we approach the height of the season. Making the right choices is challenging. Winnow them down using our capsule descriptions and handy links. There's no easier way to compare, check and choose than this handy guide. Lots of pictures, too.
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New York's World Science Festival
On Nothing and Other Important Matters
By: - Jun 20th, 2009The hottest tickets in New York from the 10th to the 14th of June were to events featuring physicists, neuroscientists and other exotic individuals. There was, indeed, much ado about nothing.
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A Berkshire Review of the Arts :
June 22 - July 5A Timely Guide to the Cultural Cornucopia
By: - Jun 19th, 2009Summer Begins with an amazing array of performing arts events to choose from. Both Tanglewood and Jacob's Pillow kick off their busy schedules while the main stages of the Berkshire's four resident professional theatre companies all kick into high gear. Our capsule descriptions and handy links will guide you through the dense array of superb cultural resources. In season world renowned artists perform in the Berkshires.
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Great Barrington's Mahaiwe Announces 2009-10 Season
A Diverse Array of Events in Next Twelve Months
By: - Jun 10th, 2009A new season of events kicks off July 5 with the reigning "Pied Piper of Music," Dan Zane and Friends and continues with opera, dance, theatre and "something for every taste."
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Our Latest Berkshire Review of the Arts for June 1-20
Your Guide to the Berkshire's Best in Theatre, Music, Dance
By: - Jun 01st, 2009June is bustin' out all over, and our resident performing arts organizations are pulling out all the stops as the season approaches. Once again we provide our handy guide to upcoming Berkshire events.
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Richard Alcombright Stirs the Pot
Mobbed Turnout for North Adams Mayoral Candidate's Fundraiser
By: - May 31st, 2009North Adams, and Mass MoCA now celebrating its 10th anniversary, have come a long way from rock bottom when Sprague Electric left town, during the 13 terms of Mayor John Barrett, Jr. For the first time in 26 years Barrett has a tough opponent in Dick Albombright. Some 800 plus turned out for a spaghetti dinner fundraiser last week. It's shaping up to be a tight race.
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Paul Chaat Smith: Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong
Provocative Essays on Politics, Arts and Culture
By: - May 29th, 2009This is a thought provoking collection of essays, many produced for exhibition catalogues by Paul Chaat Smith an associate curator of the National Museum of the American Indian of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
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Nancy Jane Fitzpatrick's Red Lion Inn Facebook Party
Face It: The Challenges of Social Networking
By: - May 26th, 2009During a mixer that Nancy Jane Fitzpartick held in the Lion's Den of the historic Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge there was the chance to put a face in the place. The event was about Facebook networking in all of its complexity.
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Memorial Day and Liberty
Recalling Ellis Island
By: - May 25th, 2009For all those who sacrified that others may be free. A day to visit family grave sites and remember the fallen. From Ellis Island, to Gettysburg, to Iwo Jima and Normandy to Wounded Knee or Mi Lai. History is never simple and every cause is hardly just.
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Previews: A Berkshire Review of The Arts
Guide to Music, Theatre and Dance: May 18-31
By: - May 18th, 2009Here's your weekly guide to the top events happening in and around the Berkshires with more than a dozen exciting and fascinating offerings for you to choose from.
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Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Announces Coming Season
Metropolitan Opera in HD Returns to Great Barrington
By: - May 09th, 2009The live in HD series of broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera were an enormous success this past year for the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. There will be a preview of the season which starts in the fall with a broadacast of a vintage performance of Renee Fleming starring in Eugene Onegin on July 11. The Mahaiwe is planning a stunning schedule of dance, music, film and theatre for the coming season.
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Biennale de Montreal 2009
Exploring the Theme of Open Culture
By: - May 05th, 2009The Biennale de Montreal, 2009 is the sixth in a series that was launched by Centre international d' art contemporain (CIAC) under its director, Claude Gosselin, a dozen years ago. The ambitious interactive theme of Open/ Libre Culture is a response to dramatic changes impacting a network of some 300 global biennial projects. The current version focuses primarily on Canadian artists.
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The Biennale of Montreal 2009
Interactive Arts Featured May 1 to 31
By: - Apr 25th, 2009Once again we expect the unexpected in the 2009 Biennale of Montreal (BNL MTL 09). Taking a lead from developments in on line social networking,media, texting, sampling in music and video,this event will allow the public to interact with all aspects of the intense, month long project.
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Provincetown Art Association and Museum
2009 Season Schedule
By: - Apr 17th, 2009There are many highlights offered in the dense schedule for the 2009 season of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. Founded in 1914 the PAAM has served one of the nation's oldest and most renowned artist colonies. The exhibitions and programming reflect that rich history.
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Decline and Fall of Print Media
Rethinking Intellectual Property
By: - Apr 16th, 2009As newspapers make drastic cuts in response to mounting debt and decline of ad revenue there is a paradigm shift in the way that we gather and rely on the accuracy of information. In the blogosphere and Facebook/ Twitter world everyone is a media pundit. At least for the proverbial 15 minutes which has eroded to just seconds. In the internet age who "owns" the rights to text and images?
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2009 Conference International Opportunities for Artists
Part Two: The Session on Biennials
By: - Apr 09th, 2009The Venice Biennale is the oldest having been founded in 1895. That was followed by the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1951 and Documenta in 1955. Today there are some 200 global biennials. As the art world gets beaten back by a sour economy it is time to reevaluate the proliferation of international exhibitions. This was the topic of a lively panel that was mostly sabotaged by an unruly participant.
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2009 Conference International Opportunities for Artists
TransCultural Exchange Hosts Second Boston Event
By: - Apr 08th, 2009Some 364 individuals attended the weekend conference International Opportunities for Artists held at the Omni Parker House in Boston. There were 25 panel discussions, mentoring sessions, power lunches, a gala and several receptions. This truly global event offered 75 speakers. It was a great networking event for artists seeking residences as well as information on art fairs and biennials. There are already plans for a 2011 conference.
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Berkshire Theatre Notes: April Showers
All My Sons, Fools Festival, Sea of Birds, Lynch Bride, and Playwright Mentoring Project
By: - Apr 06th, 2009This past weekend provided a perfect Spring Break from the monotony of the Berkshire mud season. With offerings of comedy and drama, high art and low, these were the first tender shoots of the Berkshire's bountiful season that is preparing to burst into bloom.
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Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield Prospering Despite Hard Times
Director Stuart Chase Discusses Recent Accomplishments
By: - Mar 29th, 2009Stuart Chase, the director of the 106 year old Berkshire Mueum in Pittsfield discusses the recently completed $10 million renovation that was "on time and within budget." He also deaccessioned three paintings by the Russian, Grigoriev, that added $7 million for future acquisitions. Not bad during these hard times.
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Colonial Theatre Plans Exuberant 2009-10 Season
Full Schedule of Coming Events
By: - Mar 25th, 2009In a gutsy move, Pittsfield's Colonial Theatre has greatly expanded both the number and kind of programs it will offer in the coming year. 46 different groups will present 60 performances in a dozen categories, including comedy, musicals, family events and cabaret singers.
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Endgame, Beckett for Purists at American Repertory Theatre
Is Beckett a Genius Whose Work Should Never be Changed?
By: - Mar 11th, 2009Perhaps no playwright has had more ink spilled over his work than Samuel Beckett, master of the absurd. 25 years after A.R.T.'s first production of Endgame found them in court, the new A.R.T. version of Endgame doesn't prove Beckett was right all along. Perhaps A.R.T. was.
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Stimulus Bill Includes $50 Million for the Arts
Chump Change Is Better than Nothing
By: - Feb 17th, 2009The $50 million for the arts in the $787 billion stimulus bill has been added to the existing budget of $145 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. But that is small change compared to recent appropriations for the arts of $2 billion by Germany and $4 billion in France. There is a prevailing attitude that goverment support for the arts in the U.S. is an agenda of a "cultural elite" and "liberals." But after the disaster of the eight Bush years "liberal" is no longer a dirty word.
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Jehuda Reinharz Spins the Rose
To Quote President Obama, I Screwed Up
By: - Feb 08th, 2009Spending money it can ill afford during a time of financial crisis, Jehudah Reinharz, President of Brandeis University hired Rasky Baerlein Stategic Communications, a PR firm than specializes in crisis management, to draft a carefully worded apology for a rash and irresponsible decision to close the Rose Art Museum and sell its renowned collection.
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